Drake Mourns Death of Tragically Hip Singer Gord Downie

On Tuesday (Oct. 17), Canada lost one of its more unique musical legends when The Tragically Hip's lead singer, Gord Downie, finally succumbed to brain cancer at the age of 53. In the time since his death yesterday, many have paid tribute to the band's frontman. One of them was Drake, who used an Instagram post to mourn the rock star.

It turns out they've met before. "Rest In Peace legend 😓😢 so glad we got to meet and have this conversation. You will be forever treasured by this country and missed by the world 🇨🇦," wrote Drizzy, who's been working on a new album in recent months. The post includes an image of when he and Downie met.

Drizzy, who himself is a Canadian legend, is just one of many Downie fans. Downie and The Tragically Hip, a group that also included Rob Baker, Paul Langlois and Johnny Fay, are one of Canada's more popular bands, and they released 13 albums between 1989 and 2016, the year Downie first revealed his brain cancer diagnosis. Three of their albums sold one million copies or more, while another eight of them moved at least 100,000.

Revealing Downie's death through a statement, his family touched on the fullness of the singer's life. "Gordie said he had lived many lives," they wrote. "As a musician, he lived 'the life' for over 30 years, lucky to do most of it with his high school buddies. At home, he worked just as tirelessly at being a good father, son, brother, husband and friend. No one worked harder on every part of life than Gord. No one."